Resizing some "different" 8 gauge hulls

[Joe Plante]

edgarspencer- here are a few pics of the hulls (loaded and clipped open) Let me know if they don't show up and I'll figure it out. As you can see, my opening up the shell only clips off about 3/16" of the hull, just not sure if this is a bad thing or not.

[Milton C Starr]

If you have thousands of them I would probably just sell them as is and whoever wants to salvage them can decided how they want to go about taking them apart.

[charlie cleveland]

great idea.....charlie

[Milton C Starr]

I think its going to depend what loads and wads people are using if the length off matters. I think most of the 8 gauge guys are using SP-8 wads. I know with the 1 3/4oz loads I loaded using SP-8 wads I could lop 1/4" off the hulls and still have room, by removing the 1/4" filler wad. Using fiber wads on the other hand you can pretty much configure the stack height to work with a wide variety of hull length and shot weight. So cutting 3/16" off the end wouldn't necessarily ruin the hulls but I think its going to depend on what specific loads 8 gauge guys are shooting.

[Milton C Starr]

I just noticed that one shell looks identical to one I loaded myself with a homemade shotcup. Does it have a sleeve in it ? I have pulled apart some old Winchester Industrial loads that had a shot collar or sleeve in the hull, not really sure why since they were lead loads.

[Joe Plante]

Yes, the #2 kids have a sleeve. Powder, cup, fibre wad, shot and sleeve, overshot card

[Joe Plante]

Mr. Starr thank-you for your response. That is exactly the kind of info I’ve been looking for. If what I’m doing still leaves the hull usable then I literally have thousands of hulls that the 8 ga guys will find useful. Thanks for your input.

[6pt-Sika]

Well it’s none of my buisness , HOWEVER ! If a person roll crimps ONLY I think they’d be okay . However many folks like myself fold crimp , SO I want the full 3.25” on a WIN hull and having trimmed some WIN hulls down a bit to try in Edgar’s friend roll crimper WIN hulls thicken up not to far from the mouth . Again roll crimping is fine for most but with WIN hulls I wanna fold and not have to roll like I do with REM hulls .

[Joe Plante]

Good to know, thank-you Sitka.
So, are there guys out there that would want to roll crimp that need hulls and are OK with them being slightly shorter…

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by Joe Plante

Good to know, thank-you Sitka.
So, are there guys out there that would want to roll crimp that need hulls and are OK with them being slightly shorter…

First there’s no T in Sika . Second most folks that use WIN hulls do so because they WILL fold crimp , REM hulls will not they’re to thick to fold well . After you trim let’s say 1/4” you’re pretty much in the same ballpark . I do not like anything that slows the loading process . Heck it’s bad enough loading 8’s on a single stage loader much less adding on the roll crimping part . For my own use the only thing I roll crimp are slugs and buckshot . All my birdshot loads will be fold crimped . You’re talking about a lot of time and effort to salvage the primers and I think most of the shot will be zinc . For time outlay versus selling the loaded shells outright to me it’s a no brainer sell the ammo and buy what you’re after with the proceeds then whomever buys them can do with them as they see fit .